I’m not going to argue that it is helpful to the Republican cause to have some of their male officeholders talking about masturbating fetuses or the sanctity of rape babies or saying that rape kits are a form of abortion. Your average woman is horrified when they hear Republican men say that wanting access to contraception makes you a slut or that it’s almost impossible to get pregnant while being raped. But I don’t know that this is really the biggest problem the Republicans have with women right now.
“For every step forward Republicans have taken to promote positive messages on jobs, the economy, the recent scandals or the negative impacts of ‘Obamacare,’ comments from a small handful of members—ranging from the unbelievable to the absurd—have drowned them out,” said a female GOP strategist. “These comments are scaring and alienating women, and it’s sad because conservative policies help women far more than liberal policies do.”
Republican women lawmakers are “growing increasingly frustrated,” according to one GOP lawmaker. The leadership needs to weigh in. “It’s not changing people’s minds, it’s just saying, ‘Hey, don’t say stupid things,’ ” the lawmaker said.
But that’s exactly the problem: Leadership hasn’t told anybody to knock it off, according to another GOP lawmaker.
“Nobody wants to stick their neck out too far,” the legislator said. “The problem is, nobody confronts members.”
I mean, yes, this stuff is toxic. But it’s nothing compared to what is going on at the state level. For example, right now, in Texas and Kansas we’re seeing an unprecedented assault on women’s reproductive health. Those states are hardly alone. Wherever the Republicans have the power to pass legislation over Democratic objections, they are attacking abortion rights and women’s access to reproductive health care. This harms women seeking to avoid pregnancy, women seeking to terminate a pregnancy (for any reason), and women seeking to have a healthy pregnancy.
I don’t think that most women are going to give the national Republican Party a pass just because these laws are being enacted by state-level Republicans. When a Republican governor signs a bill that compels women seeking an abortion to undergo a compulsory vaginal probe and then watch the resulting ultrasound, that reflects poorly on Republicans everywhere. And it’s real. It’s not just some stupid rhetoric.
When some local yahoo in Texas says that women should be denied rape kits because they had five months to make a decision about whether or not to carry their rape baby to term, you’ve entered Wonderland. A Rape Kit helps gather forensic evidence in the aftermath of a sexual assault. Rape Kits don’t abort fetuses. You don’t use them five months after the alleged crime. But these comments were made to defend real legislation. Real legislation that omits any exemptions for rape.
When local legislatures are passing one Rape Daddy’s Bill of Rights law after another, does it really matter what a few unhinged members of Congress have to say?